My name is Bridget Fletcher. I am the director of Graduate Communications and Intercultural Programs (GCIP). Let me start by saying, WELCOME TO DUKE!!!! We are so excited to welcome you to the Duke family and to engage with you this fall.

I’d like to share some information with you about three important topics.

GCIP vs. EIS (English for International Students)

As a Pratt student, your communication support services (including English courses) will be provided through GCIP. This can sometimes be confusing because the Graduate School also has an English program (EIS) which serves the other graduate students at Duke. Your classes and other language support services through GCIP are specifically for Pratt graduate students and have been designed with your unique needs in mind. You are not eligible for EIS services and should not take part in their testing or services. Please email me directly (bridget.fletcher@duke.edu) or gcc-pratt@duke.edu if you have any questions about your communications support services and options.

English Placement Exams

Due to the challenges we are all facing as a result of COVID 19 and the remote nature of our teaching and learning community, we will be delaying our English placement exams until spring 2021. You will be contacted during the fall semester if you are required to take English placement exams and will be given further information about testing and English courses at that time. For now, please do not worry about English placement exams. Instead, concentrate on getting acclimated and adjusted to this new learning environment we all find ourselves in! In fact, we want to help you with that….

Community Cohort Initiative

We will be launching an awesome new program this fall, the Community Cohort Initiative. This will be a class for incoming master’s students that will provide you with an opportunity for weekly connections with peers, tips for adjusting to graduate school, a head start on your career search plan, communications training, and much, much more! You will learn more about this course at orientation, so stay tuned. We hope you are as excited as we are about this!

Additionally, please know that GCIP is always here to support you in multiple ways! Please visit our website https://pratt.duke.edu/gcip to learn more and stay tuned for more details from us during orientation. You can also visit our CHILL video series for some hot tips to help you prepare for your time at Duke!

• Go to: https://sakai.duke.edu/portal/site/chillf2020·
• If prompted, log in with Duke credentials (NetID and password)
• You will see a window that asks “Would you like to join and become a member of this site?”, click “YES, ADD ME”
• You can now interact with the CHILL video content collection. Videos with interactive

We look forward to working with you soon!

Bridget + the GCIP team

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Bridget Fletcher, MA
Director, Graduate Communications and Intercultural Programs
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University